Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Refudiation of Joe Miller…

Shall we?

Way back when the 2010 political season began…and those who adore tea were being organized to take over the known world…a certain Joe Miller made his move to become the next Senator from Alaska. Joe Miller was The Chosen One…endorsed by Sarah Palin and selected by Alaskan voters in the Republican Primary. Incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was defeated in the primary and all signs pointed toward an Alaskan Tea Party victory in the general election.

I was in Alaska volunteering during the primary and I have to admit that I thought Joe Miller was unrefudiatable (wince) after he won the GOP nomination.

He was Palin endorsed running in Sarah Palin’s Alaska.

He was running in a year when incumbency was a curse.

He’s pro-tea…loves tea…probably only drinks tea…hell, odds are he bathes in that shit.

And yet…Joe Miller ran up against Senator Lisa You Betta Check Yourself before You Wreck Yourself Murkowski, who swiftly refudiated Miller’s primary victory and launched a write-in campaign that is now poised on the brink of victory.

There are lessons to be learned here.

Lessons in how to not back down when the press writes your political obituary and how to claim back momentum, redefine defiance and get the electorate to listen over the chants from the mob.

Senator Murkowski is likely to emerge from this historic write-in campaign the only true maverick of the 2010 election.

In a year when so many politicians followed the heard and accepted the flawed premise of the Tea Party's argument…in a week when GOP leadership caved so swiftly and with barely a whimper on earmarks and are prepared to cave on so much more to pander to Tea Party supporters more interested in symbols than policy…in a climate that remains enthralled by a Tea Party phenomena that has yet to articulate anything beyond the word "no"…in the midst of all that shit, Senator Murkowski waded through the muck and led Alaskan voters along with her.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Hell yes, there are lessons to be learned from The Great Murkowski Write-in Rebellion of 2010.

Meanwhile, the counting continues...the lawyers are getting paid...and someone needs to tell Microsoft Word that Oxford has embraced Palinism and the word “refudiate”.